Ver. 16-18. But of the cities of these people—thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth— i.e. Neither man, woman, nor child: but this slaughter of all the people is to be understood only, as we observed above, in case they did not surrender when summoned, but rejected the conditions of peace offered to them; in which case, their condition was worse than that of any other people, whose males only were to be slain; ver. 14. The reason given for this severe execution of the Canaanites is, lest they should teach the Israelites their abominations, their filthy idolatries, their horrid and debasing superstitions. Leviticus 18. On account of which, God thought them not fit to live any longer upon the face of the earth: for, had they been spared after obstinately rejecting terms of peace, they would undoubtedly have sought to infect the Israelites with their idolatry; and it was mercy to the human race in general, not to suffer such a wicked and contagious generation to subsist; as it is mercy to destroy a person infected with the plague, to preserve a whole community from the distemper. We should just observe, that the Girgashites, who are mentioned in chap. 7: ver. 1 are omitted here, though they are mentioned both by the Samaritan and LXX. Bishop Patrick thinks that they were a people mixed among the rest, and did not live in a separate part of the country by themselves: they are thought, however, to have dwelt on the east of the sea of Tiberias.
Related Commentaries of Deuteronomy 20:16
Deuteronomy 20:16-18
16 But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:
17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:
18 That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God.